Know when to fold ’em

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dds were always stacked steep against the four new casinos Gov. Cuomo insisted would jolt new life into hard-knock corners of New York, with neighboring states already chockablock with gambling parlors and Native American gaming well entrenched here.

And hello, here’s internet gambling to instantly scratch any itch.

After business at the first three fell well short of projections after opening last year, only a diehard gambler would have bet on Resorts World Catskills hitting the jackpot when it opened earlier this month on the site of Sullivan County’s storied Concord Hotel.

Sure enough, the numbers are in — and in its first full week of operation, the Catskills casino’s ocean of 2,151 slot machines and 112 table games, the biggest of the four casinos, pulled in less than $2.8 million, or just 62% of the lowest projections the facility’s operator had made to the state for its typical weekly gambling earnings.

This, despite promotion aimed especially at Asian-American residents of the New York City region, a major constituency for gambling, coinciding with the Lunar New Year.

Cuomo last year shrugged off the casinos’ low takes on the reasoning that “this is all additional revenue for the state.” And sure, any jobs, any additional income for the local towns and counties, and for education, is nothing to sneeze at.

But sustained shortfalls could change the equation. Moody’s has already downgraded the Finger Lakes’ del Lago Casino on worries it can’t repay debts.

This state has a history of stepping in to aid ailing racetracks. If these misbegotten casinos go belly up, the only thing we should do is watch.